Wes Pifer comes to NCCU from his previous position at St. Andrew’s Prebyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C as the assistant men’s basketball coach at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C., where he was the head coach of the junior varsity squad and recruiting coordinator at the NCAA Division II institution. During his tenure at St. Andrew’s Pifer was in charge of the guards where he mentored All-Carolinas Conference selection Marvin Jackson. That are of the team was always solid at St. Andrew’s accounting for 55 percent of the team’s scoring and 78 percent of the team’s assists.
The Creedmoor, N.C. native starred at South Granville High School, graduating in 1999. After high school, Pifer spent two years at Methodist University before moving north to finish out his collegiate career at Penn State University-Altoona from 2002-04 under the tutelage of former NBA player Armon Gilliam. During his time at PSU-Altoona, Pifer averaged 9.1 points, 5.9 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game for the Division III institution. Pifer graduated with a bachelor of science degree in health and human development and family studies in 2007.
Pifer returned home to be an assistant coach at South Granville during the 2004-05 campaign, then left to play overseas with BBG Herford in the Germany 2 Regionalliga, where he averaged 12.2 points a game and led the league in assists. After finishing up his playing career in Germany, he went back to finish his degree at PSU-Altoona in 2007 where he received a bachelor of science diploma in health and human development and family studies. A year later, he dove head first into coaching at the collegiate level when he took a job at Miami-Dade College, a junior college in Miami, Fla., where he was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2008-09.
During his time at Miami Dade he recruited many top level division I athletes including two ranked in the top 100 on ESPN.com and Scout.com (No. 57- Rico Pickett, and No. 97 Darnell Dobson). He was in charge of breaking down team and opponent film, served as the perimeter skills coach, made sure that Miami-Dade was in compliance with the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) rules, while organizing daily practice schedules and monthly team schedules. As the perimeter coach, helped numerous student-athletes sign with Division I schools such as Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota), James Beatty (Rutgers), Will Coleman (Memphis), Darnell Dodson (Kentucky), Dwan McMillan (Hofstra), Sharod Minus (USC Upstate), Anthony Phillips (Western Carolina), and Rico Pickett (Manhattan).
Pifer currently resides in Durham, N.C.
